Effects of patient death on nursing staff: a literature review

Wilson, Janet; Kirshbaum, Marilyn

doi:10.12968/bjon.2011.20.9.559

Cited by 78 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Research into nurses’ experiences with patient death has identified a number of themes similar to those found by this study 27. Future research could explore whether the particular finding of action versus presence is also applicable to nurses, allied health professionals and others dealing with patient death.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

The lived experience of physicians dealing with patient death

Whitehead

2012

BMJ Support Palliat Care

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BackgroundA growing body of research indicates that physicians suffer high levels of stress, depression and burnout. Related literature has found that physician stress can negatively impact patient care. This study builds upon previous research that found some dying patients experienced ‘iatrogenic suffering’ caused by the way physicians communicated with them regarding terminal diagnoses and palliative treatment. The goal of this research was to explore physicians’ experiences of dealing with patient death in order to understand how such experiences affect them and their communication with patients.MethodsThis study used qualitative methods to conduct and analyse 10 individual, semistructured interviews with senior physicians from several specialty areas at a large, tertiary care hospital. The resulting themes were validated using member checks and expert review.ResultsThis article presents five essential themes that provide a concise description of the lived experience of patient death for these physicians. Interpretation: These themes indicate that physicians can experience very strong and lasting emotional reactions to some patient deaths, and also that patient death can elicit intense experiences related to professional responsibility and competence. A key finding is the description of a complex process of managing the balance between personal and professional reactions in the face of patient death. The implication is that difficulties negotiating this balance may lead to unintended lapses in compassion and suboptimal outcomes in patient care.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

The lived experience of physicians dealing with patient death

Whitehead

2012

BMJ Support Palliat Care

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“…And also the findings are consistent with the results from hospice education with care workers participants [26,27]. Patients' death has negative effects on nurses' emotions, because their care is emotionally interactive with patients from the acute stage to terminal stage [28]. Actually, it was reported that 92.0% of nurses complain of caring for terminal patients [29].…”

Section: Effects Of the Programsupporting

confidence: 83%

Development and Evaluation of an Education Program for Professional Palliative Care Nursing

Yeun

Kwon²,

Lee

2015

J Korean Acad Nurs

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INTRODUCTIONHaving a respectful death is an important aspect of human need. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual [1]. Some countries such as Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, have well-developed home care nursing services. The general practitioners and home care nurses are responsible for primary medical care while the hospice facilities in the community care for the emergency symptoms of the patients. On the other hand, in South Korea, many terminal patients are treated in the wards of the general hospitals by nurses who do not have professional education in palliative care [2].The hospice care services in South Korea were started by the hospice "Mary's Little Sisters" established in the 1960s [3] and has been provided mainly by hospitals or organizations owned and/or run by religious groups. With the increased interest in the quality of life, the government has launched a medical project concerning cancer management. Palliative care is becoming an increasingly larger area for clinical practice. In the medical field, palliative care has not been established as a specialty, but in the nursing field, several institutions are providing professional palliative care education for nurses, and Master's degree programs for specialized nursing training. Yeun,Young-Ran·Kwon,Min·Lee,Kyoung-Soon palliative care is broad, however, not every nurse can afford to enroll in a six-month to one-year program for professional education, or in a Master's degree program. As such, a short palliative care professional education program is highly necessary.Nurses represent the largest sector of the health care workforce and provide most of the formal palliative care [4]. The nurses who deliver palliative care should excel at providing physical, mental, and spiritual care to patients. They ought to provide symptom management and communicate with the patients to satisfy their needs, and help the patients to achieve a good death. The physical care that most hospitals offer cannot fulfill the requirements of the needs for palliative care professionally and efficiently [5]. Nurses, who have difficulties caring for patients with untreatable diseases, cannot be expected to help such patients and their families accept the prospect of death [2]. According to a study conducted on the nurses at general hospitals who had cared for terminal patients, 70% of those nurses did not have an education relating to palliative care, and the level of recognition of a good death was moderate in both the general nurses and the intensive care unit (ICU) nurses [6]. The necessity of palliative care education is great, because a study reported that the nurses with a higher recognition of a good death showed positive attitudes and much better performances ...

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“…For decades, researchers have suggested that student nurses' first experiences with patient death can have a significant influence on practice, and attitudes regarding death and dying can be firmly established by the time nurses qualify (Chen et al, 2006;Hurtig and Stewin, 1990;Khader et al, 2010). Nurses who find early encounters with death and dying very difficult can experience feelings of inadequacy, helpless, defensiveness or distress and coping mechanisms such as suppression, distancing and avoidance may be adopted (Cooper and Barnett, 2005;Kent, 2004;Terry and Carroll, 2008;Wilson and Kirshbaum, 2011). This can potentially impact on the quality of care delivered, job satisfaction, turnover and attrition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%